All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing. -- Edmund Burke

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Fratricide in Democrat-land

The trouble that conservatives have had digesting John McCain's many betrayals over the years is not the only bitter family feud going on in American politics: the so-called Democratic Leadership Council wing of the Democrat party, must feel like the South during reconstruction, or like Tojo just after Hiroshima and Nagasaki--witness Andrew Sullivan's evisceration of Hillary Clinton, which is more brutal than almost anything I have read about her from a Republican. And that is saying a lot.

They say the truth hurts; well Democrats, welcome to what we Republicans have known for about 16 years now (big h/t to Glenn Reynolds, because I am not the biggest Sullivan fan and would never have found this myself...):

Watching senator Clinton attempt to regain some lift as she paraglides into history is almost enough to evoke pity. Almost. The Clintons come with their own boundless reserves of self-pity so further reinforcements seem unnecessary to me. And I suppose they could somehow still find a brutal, soul-grinding path to the nomination. But we've learned something important these past couple of weeks.

Clinton is a terrible manager of people. Coming into a campaign she had been planning for, what, two decades, she was so not ready on Day One, or even Day 300. Her White House, if we can glean anything from the campaign, would be a secretive nest of well-fed yes-people, an uncontrollable egomaniac spouse able and willing to bigfoot anyone if he wants to, a phalanx of flunkies who cannot tell the boss when things are wrong, and a drizzle of dreary hacks like Mark Penn. Her only genuine skill is pivoting off the Limbaugh machine (which is now as played out as its enemies). Her new weapon is apparently bursting into tears. I mean: really.

It's staggering to me that she blew through so much money for close to nothing (apart from the donuts). Without that media meltdown in New Hampshire, she would have been forced to bow out much earlier. She didn't plan for contests after Super Tuesday. She barely planned for any before that. She was out-organized in Iowa and South Carolina, and engaged in the pettiest form of politics in Florida and Michigan. Her fundraising operation was very pre-Internet. She has no message that isn't about her and the Republicans. Her trump card - Bill - managed to foment a 27 point loss in South Carolina.

I am still going to try to keep Hillary in this race against the Obam-munist a little longer by voting for her in the primary this week...but I must say that couldn't have put it better myself.